Mary Kate Kuchinski

Ap Language Composition

Tatum 4th

5 May 2020

Brent Staples Captivates His Audience with His use of Rhetorical Devices

Brent Staples, a black journalist takes a daring position when publishing his article, “Just

​ agazine. He writes this

Walk on By: A Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space”, in ​Ms. m

article in regards to white, middle-to-upper class women, who believe stereotypes of black men.

His reasoning behind this is to nullify preconceptions they are accustomed to. Staples has high

hopes that his article will open the eyes of his audience while also sharing his personal story. The

author uses anecdotes to convey his story and also ones of others, concession to show his

understanding of the way situations appear, and demonstrative rhetoric to disassociate blame

from his so called “victims” (Staples 1).

Anecdotes allow the speaker to introduce the audience to view a scenario from a different

point of view. Brent Staples opens with an anecdote that alters his perspective to those of the

women who hold a fear of being threatened, especially to black men. With his word choice “my

first victim” he appeals to the fear felt by the women he would unintentionally walk behind

(Staples 1). He also shares the anecdote of another black journalist who had once been mistaken

as the murderer of the case he once worked on, and continued to be threatened and “hauled out

from his car at gunpoint” (Staples 11). He shares these stories in a bit of a humorous tone, but

still achieves his intention to share that stereotypes have the ability to easily blind the mind to

facts.
 The journalist does a remarkable job pertaining to both sides, but he does this to

encourage the audience to react with more vulnerability on his behalf. In a sentence describing

how things are depicted in the real world, he commences with “I understand”(Staples 6). By

showing agreement he wins the audience over and grasps their attention so they choose to listen

further. The authors who succeed in achieving their intended purpose often use this tactic so their

audience aids them.

What makes this articles’ reception so unpredictable is the decision of writing it with the

intention to be read by women that hold the strongest perceptions of stereotypes. In order for his

purpose to remain holding true he has to approach the topic with caution. In doing so one must

not assign blame, because they can tend to turn the ear off, or make the reader inflamed with

anger. Staples succeeds in addressing this challenge by using demonstrative rhetoric through

present tense to show the reality between those who assault and those who are assaulted. He does

this by gently stating, “the danger they perceive is not a hallucination. Women are particularly

vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically over presented among the

perpetrators” (Staples 6). This contributes to the author's credibility by building trust in showing

he understands his audience’s fear as rational, contributing to the trust between the sender and

receiver.

Staples’ use of rhetorical devices allowed his precarious move to conclude in a respective

manner. His choice of these devices also contributed to the relationships built between the

speaker and reader throughout the article.